The Porsche Transaxle Family

It is a fact that most of us with an interest in roadgoing or race cars, will have a favourite model that holds a special place in our memory for some reason. That reason might be something significant that happened in your life where a certain car left an indelible mark in your memory, or might just be slow warming to a certain model that has built up over the years. In the Porsche model range, the 911 comes out tops for most enthusiasts of the Stuttgart marque, myself included. So, when I was asked to write a book on the Porsche transaxle family, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands, because it meant I would be able to get to know the front-engined models intimately. I was not disappointed!

The Porsche 924

We have all heard the comments that label the Porsche 924 as an Audi, but there were very good financial reasons for transplanting an Audi engine in the new 924. Firstly, when the project kicked off, it was intended to be a VW product, and so an Audi engine that was under development at the time was logically planned. Secondly, using the Audi powerplant kept the development costs way down, and buyers would benefit from the fact that the engine was already developed. Thirdly, it was only the block that was an Audi component, as much of the rest was Porsche componentry that was beefed up to give the 924 a sportier character.